The Most Important Thing I Have Learned About Recording

In this video, Mark talks about the most important thing he has learned about creating and recording music in the last thirty-five years, and it doesn't matter whether you're recording to four-track cassette or a modern DAW. Get this wrong and you're fighting a losing battle! Many thanks to Oliver Horn for the photo ;-)
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[@thewatchmanstudios6257]

..And this is why I send most of my customers to Present Day Productions. Right to the point, cogent advice that anyone can follow

[@maisonmallninja]

8:25 "most of the classic records we know and love aren't classic because of the gear used to record them." to expand on that: ...most of the prized, valuable analog gear only became so when people heard that specific hardware was used on hit records, and then proceeded to chase the record's sound through using the same hardware!

[@valleywoodstudio7345]

Absolutely - yet people fight the obvious! Always the A-B-C's A - Source - performance, arrangement and room B- Microphone and Placement C - Processing.

[@officialWWM]

Shouldn’t A actually be A, B, C and D? 🤔

[@evanwilcox82]

Truth hurts... So throw some more money at the new shiny thing.

[@liltrboofficial4671]

Thank you so much for your advice as a partially blind person who is going to open up their own studio this is really great advice

[@NacekO]

Absolutely on the money. Surprising how musicians these days fail to understand how good a musician you actually need to be in order to get great recordings. A 3500$ mic will only make a difference if the performance is outstanding.

[@jacobgissin7828]

Always loved "Shit in, shit out" as the saying goes. Your portrayal brings a much needed expalanation of just what that actually means. Some people don't know, and some like myself appreciate the reminder. Love your channel guys.

[@AhrenField]

This might just be the best production lesson on youtube.

[@tonycarpenter-Makzimia]

Number 1 : Best reminder for all aspiring recording people, make sure the source is the best it can be :). I hate trying to record half baked ideas. My own included :).

[@katywings]

I actually liked the melancholy of the first lighting 🙂

[@Gongtopia]

Preach it! This video is a must see for all aspiring producers & recording engineers!!! As they say, "You can't polish a turd." Get your sound right BEFORE you record it. People ask me what I do in the mix to my own recordings and I tell them, "Nothing. I just get a good sound, put the mics in a good place, and capture that sound." Use your ears first.

[@MartinJamesOfficial]

Cannot give this video enough praise, Mark! So many comments on forums and Facebook pages asking for a plug-in that will fix an issue, when the issue was created from the beginning. I’m limited by the sound of my home studio and know it will never be perfect, so I’ve been learned where things sound good and accepted that if I don’t like the sound of a recording then I’m going to have to go back and redo it. Luckily I learned audio production from an old-school lecturer at uni and I wasn’t allowed near a DAW until I had produced a song using an old Soundcraft desk, patch bay and an Alesis digital recorder!

[@chriswhitelaw447]

Good to hear someone articulate this! .. Lovely cat! .. And, and and and, no mic in shot - sounds great too! many thanks

[@MrGreenAKAguci00]

5:10 for a reasonable diy home "vocal booth" with low reverb one may open their wardrobe put the mic in front of it hang a blanket or duvet on the wardrobe doors behind you and hang a coat or bathrobe on each door. It will take trial and error and moving the clothes inside and the microphone will impact the sound. After finding the right positioning you will have to record all the takes that you need or be prepared to keep the "booth" as is until you have all you need. Also it's important to keep in mind that vocal recorded like that may end up being too dry so yeah employ the trial and error tactics until it fits your purpose.

[@PresentDayProduction]

You can sing in bed and get under the duvet too - we know plenty of singers who have been doing that during lockdown! RX de-snore to the rescue though 🤣

[@MrGreenAKAguci00]

@@PresentDayProduction It's free for all out there in the wild.

[@natus49]

Great video! The same advice applies to sample selection and sound design to those of us who aren't recording lots of live audio for our tracks

[@axilleas]

The one phrase that can make me go berserk in the studio: we’ll fix it in the mix! Another video full of great advice! Thanks guys!!!

[@teashea1]

Your presentations are uniformly excellent - in terms of content - organization - production values and the presenters are quite articulate and likeable.

[@git606]

I think there’s a misconception the way things were recorded back in the day. They would go over a take again and again till it was right. There’d be stories about doing a vocal take 30 times till it was right. Nowadays you might do 3 runs and comp them. Every time you run through you would have certain inflections which would give it a personality. Modern recording isn’t like that anymore and the music suffers for it.

[@GeoZero]

Yep, you are right. About the only thing we would do back in the day of tape and no DAWs when recording on tape might be punching in/out to fix a really bad note. But we did that very sparingly as there was a danger of screwing it up, and it was done only to fix the most bad notes or sounds. There was also a track limit which forced us to think ahead of how we would structure the song from a production perspective and how we would go about actually recording it.

[@prodbydramatic]

i totally agree

[@ctrlaltcreate3827]

I try to only write songs that can be performed in single takes. It’s insane how unnatural all the punch-in’s and overdubs can sound

[@doctersound9630]

Thank you. Great information! Love the shirt! Cheers from Canada. 🇨🇦🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

[@MusicdocMT]

Nicely done gentlemen ....YET another video I'm sharing with my students :: cheers

[@PresentDayProduction]

Thank you for sharing!

[@1337murk]

Professional level pointers right there

[@seanwalsh999]

The basics often get overlooked, love the video lighting example, pictures reinforce a thousand words. Thanks for the reminder.

[@JTPiano2011]

Great video. Im 44 years in as a musician/engineer/producer and “SAS” is my mantra: Sound at source. My clients have ofter joked about about me mumbling this mantra during sessions… Love the slogan on your polo shirt. Where might I order one of my own?

[@PresentDayProduction]

Cheers! It’s on here, various options and designs. The polo option is on there too! Thanks :) present-day-production.myspreadshop.co.uk

[@FredGuits]

I think when we record ourselves it can get to a be a hit and miss process.. A good recording engineer/ producer can help with things that the performer may might miss

[@Hanssone]

One thing I learned: If the recording and monitoring is set up right and you make an above average performance, You will just know that is a great performance right as you doing it. You dont even have to listen back again, you just know it every single time. And if it doesnt feel right, then you have to go back and work on everything mentioned in this video. just my 2 cents

[@DannyTaddei]

This is the best video I have watched for truth on KZbin! I always tell people to sound is like a photo. What you start with is what you’re working with. If you have a crap photo with a fat ugly model, you’re not going to get a perfect picture of a total north from photoshop. You can make it better but it would be what you want!

[@vasilisnalbantis]

Invaluable tips Marks! Thank you for putting them out there. Cheers!

[@billysmart6825]

You are my favorite music youtuber

[@jonnyidle]

Just about to record my first band. Thank you for this. Wish me luck! 😁👍🏻

[@PresentDayProduction]

God luck! Hope it goes well!

[@tarzismuller7022]

And thats the truth ruth!

[@alexmasters23]

it's hard to admit that maybe what's happening "before the microphone" isn't as good as you might think. and it becomes more and more obvious when listening back to the recording. thanks for the insightful and articulate video!

[@tob2089]

3:17 fucking hell i was not prepared to see that

[@sonicart1808]

Brilliant as always thanks Mark!

[@KarlMiller-DjKarl]

In my opinion modern day recording in the music industry is to mainstream for me... I like old school kind of lofi but very clean and not over driven... I take out a lot of DC humm by using the DC offset in my Adaptive Limiter... ☮️🔥

[@xandervideo1]

You're talkin' my language ... get it right at source. Great job. 👍

[@CheapoCardCompany]

Many of us are ‘rheumy’ in a not very nice way. Actually, ‘sound’ comes from the spongy decoding gubbins and signals inside one’s head... anything external is just moving air. Nearly missed this, as the Julian Krause live stream is on right now... similar to PDP but with more giggling, singing, swearing & fart jokes... erm.

[@tutubeos]

This is gold advice! 💙👍🏼

[@GeoZero]

Great video and analogies. I'm so glad I started my recording journey back on 1/4 inch 4 track tapes and having to get creative in recording techniques and bouncing tracks. I recently listened to a 4 track drum track recording I did (1991) in a crappy garage space with a Shure 58 (in front of kit to get snare/kick) and 2 radio shack mics (for overheads). There is no processing, no compression, nothing but a bit of EQ coming into a tiny Tascam 6 track mixer. Yet we treated the drums with sheets, tape and pillows, and spent hours on mic placements and it sounds pretty decent still after all these years. We simply had to experiment due to lack of gear. Nowadays it's just too easy to fall in the "we'll fix it in the mix" thinking. Same recording has vocals going through a guitar delay pedal because we could not afford outboard gear or reverb.

[@pricedlx]

I’m glad that when I first became aware of the impact of engineers on the music I love, the engineer I loved the most was Steve Albini. As far back as I remember he has said the same thing.

[@boxabeatrecordings6309]

Me too learned this the hard way. I would have saved a few years of desperate attempts to make something sound good in the mixing phase if I would have gotten this advice from the start. Exactly because of what you explain and focusing on the recordings my productions started to sound a few levels higher. Very nice to share your experience to the beginner-recordists.

[@facething1]

Nothing but FACTS. Great stuff guys!

[@PresentDayProduction]

Cheers Oscar!

[@facething1]

@@PresentDayProduction Cheers mate! 😉

[@LongshanMusic]

Mark: My vocal recordings sound like shite cuz I have a crap-awful voice that's good for nothing. Seriously, my singing is so bad that I deserve to be boiled alive in a cauldron of oily. . . Mark's shirt: Create don't. . . *sigh* never mind. . .

[@paulpaul00]

Love this channel!

[@dannyprecysroadtoforever5234]

Well said my friend you absolutely nailed it. Take a great arrangement and performance recorded into a modest DAW with stock plugins and it's still great with very little processing needed.

[@robgreenlandMusic]

THE best advice in one video. Totally agree and can confirm through experience this is all true! It's true as much live as it is in the studio. Experience taught me when to ask "do you really want that snare to sound like that?" and re-tune/tune it quickly before a show (if ok to do so) as just one example. S.I.S.O., STILL golden rule number one in Production. Start well and you don't have to "make it work" because it already does. Love this channel too!

[@PresentDayProduction]

Thanks Rob!

[@MuLtI1970_MIDI_channel]

Straight to the point and brought in a understandable way. Excellent Marc. May the voice be with you ;)

[@MrLarsDF]

Spot on🙏🙏😊.. just spot on😁

[@flussmedel]

Watched all episodes since i found the channel. Keep up what you doing, share your honest knowledge, keep it to what is important, it's needed! Hope you never hide this in to a patrion/pay to know channel. Thanks for sharing your knowledge from doing what you do.

[@michaeltablet8577]

Thank you so very much! It's such a great time to learn recording and mixing! Great teachers like yourself sharing wisdom for free. I am so grateful!

[@PresentDayProduction]

Thanks Michael! It’s easy to forget the knowledge accumulated over the years and assume everyone knows that, so it’s lovely to get comments like this. Thanks for watching!

[@LightBlazeMC]

awesome video as always! love this channel

[@rolandgerard6064]

Good intro 👍😎

[@dylanhughes4548]

Didn't know you could buy gear from Tesco back in the day!

[@kaislivesoundchannel4706]

I am doing live sound for over 30 years and we always had this saying: sound is made before the microphone.

[@dburridgemusic]

Another incredible video. Thank you guys, more please!

[@benjaminzagar4626]

Great video!

[@TonyJBrennan]

learned this the long way round. 80 percent of the time is now getting the source fitting or sounding well . mainly as i hate processing stuff and it makes it sound great in mono. training your self to know when something sounds good or good for a mix takes time though. your ear and taste can fool you if you arent careful and you end up with a mediocre sound . doing it quietly helps.

[@ScottChesworth]

In, my, ears Good advice in, my, ears…

[@peterblackmore7560]

Wow, what an awesome experience and succinct explanation! The lighting analogy was perfect. Well done Mark - again. You were fortunate to have a few decades of tracking to be able to come to this conclusion and we are fortunate to be able to share in your experience. I think one aspect of the analogue vs digital debate misses a point. In the olden days (yes I had a pet dinosaur - feeding it was exxy), a band would learn their craft in pubs and clubs and then if they got lucky, someone who knew someone who knew an A&R person would get them to listen to you and you got a recording contract. Put another way, you had become at least a moderately proficient musician before you saw the inside of a recording studio. Playing an instrument (years of lessons, exams etc) and singing madrigals etc meant that I could sing harmonies in tune. But I got hoarse when I sang out. A few lessons about vocal technique nad exercises would have been really helpful. Oh well, in my next life . . .

[@latheofheaven1017]

I stumbled on the 'close-miking your head' technique a few years ago. I don't have to worry about plosives, and, as I angle the mike down, it also picks up the sound from my chest. Works really well. I still need those singing lessons though...

[@EoinOSullivan1]

Great video 👍👍

[@hirnzircus]

Good one. Thanks a lot :)

[@jangerhard4039]

The secret sauce: Talent. For all of us who are not born with much of it there is only one way: Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse.

[@peterbrandt7911]

I copy everything you said. Two small hints. If you need the proximity effect of your mic and turning the head isn't an option, try to sing a b for a p and a d for a t. If your on a budget as most people are, fancy mic pres and premium converters can wait. Get at least one decent mic and if possible, try it in a store first to check your own voice with it. Thanks to you Mark, as always a great video. Greetings to James and Flopcat.

[@angermanagementstudios]

My old man has always said: “Tiger woods would still be the greatest golfer in the world if he was playing with some branches he’d snapped off a tree…” Musicians themselves are the most important thing in any recording.

[@doctorscoot]

Absolutely great 👍

[@murraywebster1228]

The sound is only as good as the source, nice phrase here in Germany „Mischpult ist kein Klärwerk“, the Mixing desk isn’t a sewage treatment works……

[@almightytreegod]

How did you guys know I’ve been looking into vocal lessons?

[@Threemicsrecords]

You sound better without lighting :D

[@philipgilligan_art]

Really interesting thankyou

[@Wergiftfresch]

Yes and ... no. Or.. maybe? I record myself solo and with a band, and I'm playing (contemporary) didgeridoo. Part of which is to actually play pretty low in volume for different sound textures, or that extra bit of speed that you can't have while mashing full on. I regularly record with a whole drumset present as well, all in the same room, "off the floor". With mic placement, and choosing cardioids (or fig 8s), I can get enough rejection of the really loud things in the room so that I don't just record spill, but also record my performance. But that also involves getting reeeeal close, because, let's face it, I'm pretty silent. Mark, you've mastered a song of mine and were quite content with what I delivered to you (and I was with what I got back) -- but the didge on that track was quite heavily processed to achieve that sound (in contrast to, say, the hang drum, the cajon, or even the flute (save for the creative use of delay and distortion)). Yes, I can improve my output a notch (say, 6 - 9 dB) with practice and lessons (and I have been and keep taking lessons from one of the world's greatest didgeridoo artists)! But ... if I take a cardoid or fig 8 and move it up close to my sound source, you'll know what happens. The proximity effect kicks in. Plus I record a pretty bassy instrument to begin with. So I can't just hi-pass everything (and most mics don't even have a high pass high enough that I'd need to null the proximity effect!). Also, I _do_ want the bass. My function in the songs typically is that of a funky bass (if I'm not texturing the background vibe instead - which, again, wants bass). So I have to reinforce the highs as they get drowned by the massive bass energy going on. Now, to the best of my knowledge, what I could do, is build a sound isolation tunnel into which I stick the bell-end of my didge and the mic, but I'd still get an overall poor signal-to-room ratio out of it, and when I start automating that, I also automate the room a lot. Add in the fact that I have a violent dynamic range even in normal, "loud" playing (in the region of 12 to 18 dB), seriously the best thing I could do is be in a separate room. Which I don't have (at least not one where I could interact with the band, which is pretty darn important on my/our skill level). It's a conundrum I'm faced with. Oh dear I would love to have two mics, one just capturing the 40-80 Hz I'm interested in close up, and one capturing the 400 Hz+ (and especially the 2k +/- 300 and 4k +/- , say, 500) I'm interested in far away, but the more sensitive, distant mic would still pick up a lot of room. So ... I'm processing the whole thing. Anyways, not saying it's impossible, just not .. possible for me right now, and looking at some of the best; they do avoid playing with noisy bands (when they're tracking off the floor). I know, for example, Dubravko Lapaine has recorded didgeridoo for a pretty harsh metal band, but he wasn't in the room to do so. He wouldn't need that either; he's a top class performer and you could hear him sneeze from a mile away - he'd have the power to easily be present in "my" rooms and be heard. But I still wanna make music until, finally, in 2030, I might have reached his level of power... I'm curious how the engineers of old would (have) approach(ed) the problem. Then again, back in the days, we wouldn't be recording in a barn, would we. They'd probably stick me in a drum room or behind windowed sound shields, so I could see and gesticulate with the band, but wouldn't have their sound in my room ... again: sheer luxury... Anyways. What ARE your suggestions, fellow viewers as well as e.g., you, Mark, for tackling the problem of recording silent, bassy instruments with discriminating HF content next to loud ones? Always interested in learning, and willing to try out suggestions.

[@PresentDayProduction]

It’s a tough one, but for me it’s always been about getting good isolation that doesn’t get in the way of communication between musicians, and careful mic placement. If you have a loud source and a quiet source next to either other, the mic(s) on the quiet one are always going to pick up the loud ones too. You can make that spill work and sound great with experimentation, but sometimes you just have to find a way to isolate. You could try transducers as well - they can sound great!

[@Wergiftfresch]

@@PresentDayProduction not sure what you mean with "transducer" here. Are you referring to different types of capsules, i.e., mic mods? in other words, experiment with more mics and polar pattern implementations?

[@woutervanteerling]

Haha, in video we always make the joke ‘we’ll fix it in post’.. to directly point at what these 10minutes say.

[@BurninSven1]

It´s like any instrument it´s just a vessel and you are behind the steering wheel so don´t blame the instrument if the sounds that comes out of it sounds like s....... lol

[@furiobisotti8150]

This is 100% true. But we must remember that real artists are a vast minority. Most of the people here are amateurs (me included) that play and record for fun. I am a keyboard player, I play in cover bands. I saw some real musician playing on stage near myself. I could immediately see the huge difference. So? During the day I keep on doing my obscure job selling chemicals, at night I play and record trying my best. Because I like that. Obviously I buy some device, but the most important thing is "self awareness". I do it because I love it. I will never play in a stadium, I will never record my music in a professional studio. I just need to remember this simple situation and buy a cheap condenser microphone, if needed, because it will allow some fun. Not because my voice will become nice as a real singer.

[@mankepoot9440]

I have heard that making music at day and selling chemicals at night is much more lucrative.

[@furiobisotti8150]

@@mankepoot9440 It depends on the chemicals....

[@GillamtheGreatest]

in my face vocal is best vocal

[@teashea1]

Amen................................

[@mack_solo]

I have nothing of value to add here. I'm sicking my comment in so the KZbin god algorithm can elevate the ranking of this important video lesson and gets more people to watch it. (I experimented with recording audio on what was available to me back in the 80's. I was dismissed by "gurus" for not having this and that in my unprofessional recording arsenal. The reality was i discovered (by trial and error) one could nuance the audio better by distance and angle of the microphone than by the size of one's wallet.)

[@dooda1193]

the man

[@simontassano5992]

Hear Hear!

[@caprimaniac01]

Shit in, Shit out. A DAW is not a sewage plant processor and neither is the audio engineer a sewage plant worker.

[@evanwilcox82]

But what will I do with the 56 new Waves plugins I just got on sale?

[@PresentDayProduction]

BURN THEM!!! 🤣

[@dylanhughes4548]

8.20 - Top Tip - Go back to the sauce.

[@officialWWM]

And a cat. A cat is clearly a very important acoustic device.

[@petefrasersoft]

Bass trap?

[@officialWWM]

@@petefrasersoft mouse trap :)

[@Hermiel]

Cats are okay but have you tried dogs?

[@PresentDayProduction]

In my heart and mind I’m a dog person, but actually cats win for me every time now.

[@Hermiel]

@@PresentDayProduction Fair enough.

[@jonatanb8083]

? ???????

[@mannymakesmusic891]

flops